Your Love On My Skin
by operadeglace
Summary: She attracted him with the ink on her skin. He attracted her by inking her soul onto his. (NaruSaku AU; Tattoo/NS Family)
1. Chapter 1

Your Love On My Skin

by operadeglace

When Naruto Uzumaki was twelve, he got his first tattoo.

Being an orphan, he lived on the streets, learning at a very young age that life alone, shunned by society, was a life that wasn't all too enjoyable.

He could still remember as the thugs beat him under the rubbish laden bridge, his blood everywhere around him, in his sight, on his tongue, in his breath.

 _"You're trash! You're nothing, fox boy!"_

They were a bunch of bullies who enjoyed picking on him at school. He couldn't understand what he did to deserve such cruelty from them.

One of them suddenly received an entertaining revelation.

 _"Dude… I have a needle. Let's put whiskers on his face..!"_

 _"Yeah! Then he'll be a real fox boy!"_

The bloodied blonde began to struggle even harder as the older kids used the weight of their bodies and restraining hands to hold him still as the boy with the needle he dipped in ink began to draw three horizontal lines on each side of his face.

His pained cries reached the ears of a man passing by.

 _"HEY! What the h*ll are you kids doing!?"_

He immediately ran towards the hoodlums, waving his hands and pointing, effectively scaring them away from the body he saw on the ground as he sprinted forward.

"Naruto… is that _you_?"

That day, Naruto was saved by his teacher, and current mentor, Mr. Iruka Umino.

It wasn't until after he was taken to the hospital, his swollen face cleaned and stitched up, was he able to see the three lines on either side of his face, a permanent reminder of how much the world hated him.

"Dear, Lord… Naruto. Your face…" Iruka's voice was ripe with compassion. "What did they do to you?"

"They're whiskers." The injured boy replies in a low, honest voice. "They drew them on my face because I draw foxes in class instead of work…"

Iruka noted how defeated he sounded, covered in bandages with no tears to cry out. He had received a disfigurement that would literally scar him for life, and there was really nothing he could do about it. The pony tailed man knew that there were no parents, relatives, or even friends.

That was when he decided to be that first bond in the poor lad's sad, lonely existence.

Being a very underpaid teacher, Iruka lived in a tiny apartment on the top floor of a brick building in the heart of the city. With permission of the kind landlady, he was able to rent the small shed on the roof for Naruto to live in. The tiny shack was usually used for extra storage to any boarders who were able to pay for it. Since no one in the slums could afford extra items to use in the extra space, it was mostly empty.

Naruto opened the door gingerly, the flimsy metal bending as he moved it.

"You can stay here for free and as long as you like, _if_ you continue to go to school. Just, try to draw a little less foxes and pay more attention."

Iruka couldn't tell if Naruto was silent because he was dismayed with the cramped, spider webbed living space, or if he was just going to reject his kind offer to quickly disappear onto the streets.

"I have a lifetime supply of instant ramen because my uncle is the manufacturer of 'Ichi's Instant Ramen', so you can eat at my place every night, if you like." He continues, cautiously, saddened that he couldn't offer the boy anymore than a closet and junk food. "Does that sound okay..?"

Naruto turns around suddenly, surprising the well-meaning adult with a brilliant, whiskered grin that his teacher had never seen before.

"Yeah! I love ramen more than anything!"

With Iruka's support, Naruto the journeyed next years of his adolescence less alone and with more love than he had ever been shown in his life, to the best of his memory.

Of course, his scars affected much of the decisions he made, so when he was sixteen, his guardian allowed him to "fix" his face.

"Excuse me… I need to cover my scars with something cool." He went to a legitimate tattoo parlor and talked to a skinny, tattooed teenage boy in the front of the shop.

"Ah, yeah! I think they're so light, we can lead the eye away from the whisker-things distracting them with a quote, or your favorite saying in light letters, right here on your jawline." The older boy points to his face like he was planning out a painting on a canvas.

 _"Kabuto, I got this one."_ A deep voice rumbles behind them.

A burly, inked man with long, shaggy white hair walks into the front room and ushers Naruto in a nearby chair.

"W-what are you going to put on my face?" The slightly intimidated boy stutters, as the man ignores him and quickly pulls on some gloves.

"Iruka is my good buddy… he called and told me everything." Naruto could feel his voice soften as large fingers roughly cleaned his tri-lined cheeks. "This one is on the house."

The needles pressed painfully into the scar tissue of his face, but it wasn't the most painful thing he had physically felt, so he closed his eyes and sat very still. Once the pain passed, he opened his eyes and looked straight ahead to the mirrors to see what the man had done.

What he found, startled him.

His crude whiskers, which once looked like thin, bluish scratches, were transformed into what seemed to be powerful, bold looking war paint.

"Jiraiya… why did you cover the whiskers with bigger whiskers?"

Naruto heard his tattoo artist's assistant gripe. According to the annoyance in the older boy's voice, the artist, known simply as Jiraiya, was famous for making unorthodox decisions. The white-haired man grins at Naruto as he pats his back.

"You should never be ashamed of your battle scars."

The whiskered boy agreed with Jiraiya, walking onto his school campus finally feeling like he was in control of his destiny.

-The End of Chapter One.

–Story by ODG

– Comment and review if you like it! Tell me what you think! This is based off of my NaruSaku Tattoo Art on my tumblr! Check it out!

NEXT CHAPTER PREVIEW:

 _"Did you see her pink hair?"_

 _"Yeah, what a hipster. I bet she likes all of the attention that she gets with those crazy tattoos."_

 _Naruto Uzumaki hated riding the bus, but if he didn't, he wouldn't have seen the woman who would become his everything._


	2. Chapter 2

Your Love on My Skin

by operadeglace

* * *

Naruto loved the attention that he was getting with his new, improved whiskers, the negative and the positive.

He didn't feel invisible or neglected.

He didn't have time to dwell on the emptiness of his existence.

'Naruto' was a name on everyone's lips as he passed through the locker lined hallways of Hidden Leaf High School. It empowered him with a confidence that he had never felt in all of his lonely life. He grew to love the marks on his cheeks, the formerly cursed scratches that used to brand the sorrows of his past into his skin. They were quite beautiful to him now, and he couldn't imagine himself without the bold lines gracing his cheeks.

As his fingers touched each trail of ink embedded in his skin, Naruto could hear the gruff voice of the burly tattoo artist named Jiraiya, echoing through his thoughts.

 _"You should never be ashamed of your battle scars."_

After he finished his homework in class, he started to sketch a fox inside of his sketch book. It was a picture he had been working on since his free period that morning, and it was gaining a few, amused spectators.

A pretty girl named Ino looks over his shoulder and gasps.

" _Wow!_ You're good!" She exclaims, calling her friends over to see.

"You are an amazing artist, Naruto." Another girl praises him as she views the orange animal.

"He's got nine tails! That's so unique!"

Suddenly, a hand rips the page away and crumples it.

It was one of Naruto's former, bullying tormentors, a starting line-up, basketball jock who also happened to be the jealous boyfriend of one of the girls who gave him such kind compliments about his art.

"Look at that. Now its just a worthless piece of trash!" He shoots the wadded paper at his head, bouncing off a landing on his sketch book. "Just like you, _fox boy_."

If it weren't for the promise that he made to Mr. Umino, that bully would have enjoyed a broken nose… Naruto growled at the boy as he walked away, laughing, his girlfriend looking back at him apologetically. His hands unfurled the wrinkled drawing and gently smooths the paper as best as he could with his palms.

The next month, he returned to the tattoo parlor, "Toad Sage Tattoos", with a fist full of money that he had earned from completing odd jobs for the land lady and pleaded with the owner to give him another.

"You want a fox… with _nine_ tails..? On your _back_?"

"Yeah, something fierce. Like this…" Naruto handed Jiraiya the crinkled picture that he drew of the ferocious, nine-tailed fox. The owner of the Toad Sage looked impressed.

"You _drew_ this?" He asks, scratching his chin and flipping the drawing on its side to admire it from a different angle.

"Yeah. So, can you do it?" The blonde boy hurriedly continues pleading his case.

"I'm not gonna lie…this is really gonna hurt, kid…"

"I can take pain."

Jiraiya sighed as he heard the seriousness in his voice and ushered the boy onto a table. He immediately began preparations for the rather remarkable art to be laid on his skin.

Many painful hours later, Naruto emerged from the parlor with his back bandaged, and instructions to care for it. He didn't have a mirror in his tiny roof top hovel, so he couldn't see what exactly was on his back.

Several visits later, Naruto grew worried.

He only had enough money for a medium sized tattoo on his back, but not a giant one. It now extended down both of his arms. By now, he was well acquainted with Jiraiya's crazy antics in expressing his 'art' but he was afraid that he couldn't pay for any of it.

"Are you… almost done, Jiraiya?" The weary teenager whines, his cheek flat against the cushioning of the tattooing table.

"Done." Jiraiya grunted in response, allowing the boy to shakily lift himself from the table and move to the viewing mirrors.

Craning his neck to view his back, Naruto's breath caught in his throat as he saw it.

A giant nine-tailed fox.

It was the perfect size to capture it's magnificence and grandeur, occupying almost the entirety of his back. It was frozen, mid-growl, with fur so detailed with ink that it nearly bristled with life in its vibrancy. Nine, whispy tails extended and vanished along his sides, curling back into view along his well toned arms.

He looked pretty bad *ss.

The confidence began to course through his veins once more.

He'd like to see that bully try to mess with this fox…

"I know you were worrying about paying for this…" Jiraiya's voice cuts into his admiration session, making the boy slouch where he stood.

"I need a new apprentice… and you have a sh*t ton of talent."

Naruto's eyes narrow, trying his hardest to see where the tattoo artist was going with this conversation.

"With your high pain tolerance, I figured you could practice on yourself until you are old enough to take customers." The tall man stands beside him to admire his work, stretching his hands high, behind his head.

"So… payment..?" The Uzumaki lad's blue eyes turned towards the glowing eyes of the fox in the mirror.

"Consider this your first pay check." Jiraiya grins, patting the kid on his shoulders reassuringly. "We start training after you get out of school tomorrow."

"Do I need to, uh, bring anything?" Naruto asks his new instructor, still trying to get a grasp of what understanding exactly was transpiring between them.

"Draw a picture of the tattoo you want next and bring it… we'll begin there."

After a month of healing and strict tutelage within the Toad Sage, Naruto was given the green light to handle a tattoo machine. A few hours passed as he was left alone to focus on his art while his teacher was with a customer.

It hurt a little more than as his last experiences, but, the subject of this tattoo was too important for him to care about the searing pain of the needle penetrating the dermis of his forearm.

Jiraiya stumbled in after he was finished, excited to see the work of his pupil; he wasn't disappointed.

There was a gray scale image of two people (as if they were carved in stone) artfully crafted on the young apprentice's forearm. Their eyes were closed peacefully as they embraced each other, and they felt so life-like that they looked like they were actually taking a nap on his arm.

"It's none too colorful… who are they?" The older man asks the younger, who replies with a simple, "They're my parents."

"It's very good for your first time, Naruto." He inspects the arm and sees only a few spots in which there would be scar formations in the future, mistakes cleverly hidden by more delicate, detailed lines that drew the eyes away from the harsher lines.

Every nerve ending buzzed with excitement whenever his arm ached with pain, reminding him that his art was permanent and lasting. His need for expression and recognition was heard by a living canvas, and now his passion could be realized, viewed, admired, and left untampered by all who could see him.

It was that pivotal event that spurred Naruto forward, and his love grew for the ink within his skin.

The ink that touched his soul and bared it.

The ink that truly helped him feel free.

As Naruto threw himself on his lumpy bed that night, in his tiny closet home, he set his sights on becoming the best tattoo artist in the city.

–

After he graduated from Hidden Leaf High, Naruto found himself in a slightly larger apartment, and heading to college. He didn't want to go, but it was a request given to him by Iruka, and there wasn't anything he wouldn't do for the mentor who saved his life and turned him down the path that he now enjoyed traveling.

Well, not now, now…

 _'Three buses… THREE!? I can barely handle one bus…'_

Naruto _hated_ riding the bus.

He had to take three buses to get to Konoha University.

They were smelly, hot, and the riders looked eternally pissed off.

 _'I'd look that pissed if I had to ride the bus every day, too.'_ Naruto reasoned in his head. _'That may be me, soon…'_

As much as he hated riding the bus, if he didn't, he wouldn't have seen _her_.

His muse.

 _"Did you see that chick's hair?"_

 _"Yeah, what a hipster. I bet she likes all of the attention that she gets with those crazy tattoos, too."_

Not feeling at all guilty about eavesdropping, Naruto turns his head at the mention of 'tattoos' to see the owner of them standing behind him.

It was a slim girl with pink hued hair tipped with lilac dye and a multitude of tattoos like intricate ribbons, snaking around her arms. Naruto's gaze lingered along each picture on her skin, admiring the stunning artwork that adorned her limbs as she seemed to be looking out the window behind them, deep in thought.

Then she turned.

Cerulean sky connected with green, jeweled stone as their eyes met briefly.

She smiled brightly at him and he was instantly in love with the inked angel.

The beautiful smile. The beautiful ink.

Naruto felt his heart burn and enlarge dangerously with strange emotions in his own tattooed chest.

Then she was gone.

The bus had stopped and she had exited quickly. It looked like she was late for something. Naruto smashed his face to the window, trying to see where his pink haired angel was off to. A sign above the gates read, 'Konoha University est. 1945′.

He sits back in his seat and grins, his whiskers rising as his cheeks turn rosy in color.

"Hey! She goes to the same University I go to!" He whispers excitedly to himself. "I'm definitely going to find out her name… and the name of her tattoo artist…"

It took a few minutes for him to break out of his stupor before he realized a very important correlation… the tattooed girl with the pink hair stopped at _Konoha University_.

The university which he was supposed to be attending, at that moment, as well.

 _"I MISSED MY FREAKING STOP!"_

Naruto really, really hated buses.

-The end of chapter two.

–Story by ODG

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Review kindly, please. :) All those who are not into NS, please refrain from commenting about OTP choices.


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